Facebook is trying to pay off music publishers with copyright concerns

Facebook is offering music publishers hundreds of millions of dollars so that its users can legally use popular songs in videos they upload, Bloomberg reports.

Citing several people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg claims that Facebook has been negotiating with music publishers for several months, with former YouTube exec Tamara Hrivnak leading the discussions for Facebook.

Video content has become incredibly popular on Facebook over the last few years but many of the videos posted on the social media platform contain music that Facebook doesn’t have the rights to.

Music rights holders currently have to ask Facebook to take down videos that breach copyright laws but it looks like Facebook is keen to find a solution to the matter.

Facebook has reportedly promised to create a system that can identify and tag music that breaches copyright. However, Bloomberg sources allegedly said it could take two years to build, adding that the time frame is not realistic for either side.

Therefore, Facebook is keen to make a deal sooner rather than later with the music publishers in a bid to avoid further annoying users who’ve seen their videos removed.

The Bloomberg report comes as Facebook is rolling out a new video hub on its platform called Watch, which is intended to go head-to-head with YouTube and could provide Facebook with billions of dollars in additional ad revenue.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, told investors on the company’s second quarter earnings call that video is becoming increasingly important to Facebook, and said that it will overtake text and photo sharing on the platform in the future.

Music rights holders have seen their fortunes rise in recent years off the back of a number of deals with large tech companies, such as Apple, Spotify, and SoundCloud.